Getting Started

Graduate Supervision is the central and most influential way students learn during their graduate degree. It is a mentoring relationship between you and your student characterized by the intentional provision of guidance, teaching and learning activities and feedback. It's also a relationship that, when grounded in dignity, mutuality and respect, can be one of the most impactful academic experiences for supervisors and students alike. The intent of supervision is to guide graduate students through their research, scholarly and/or creative work, while fostering intellectual, disciplinary and professional growth. All participants have a role: you, your students and the supervisory committee. Understanding these roles, and actively enacting yours is a key way to be effective while attending to your own work-life balance.

Roles and Responsibilities of a Graduate Supervisor

The supervisor’s principal task consists of helping students realize their scholarly potential. This can only be accomplished in a relationship that offers insights born of experience, and furnishes the requisite challenges, stimulation, guidance and genuine support. The student has a right to expect expertise, accessibility and support from the supervisor. The supervisor must offer substantive and procedural assistance with the design, planning and conduct of feasible research projects, introduction to the network of scholars in the area of specialization, and support for the presentation and publication of research results. At the same time, the supervisor must ensure that the scholarly standards of the university and the discipline are met in the student’s work.

• Read the Graduate Supervision Handbook (pdf) from FGS. This handbook endeavours to support graduate supervisors with practical guidance, relational strategies, and thoughtful tools and policies to cultivate respectful, collaborative, and enriching supervision experiences.
• Read the YorkU Graduate Supervision Guidelines (.pdf). This document describes the responsibilities of supervisors, committee members and students. Enacting these roles is an expected component of FGS appointment. They are designed to support an environment in which a professional working relationship can flourish and where your expertise can support student learning.
• Read the YorkU The Strong Start to Supervision Checklist (.pdf). from the Faculty of Graduate Studies. The aim of the checklist is to facilitate a strong start to the supervisory relationship through clarification and discussion of key relevant items.
• Read the YorkU Strong Start to Supervision: An International Student Companion Guide. It aims to bring awareness to the unique aspects of the International graduate student experience while fostering open dialogue between supervisor and student. The Companion Guide is structured around the phases that International graduate students follow from pre-arrival to pre-graduation in order to provide the supervisor with a complete picture of their experiences.
• Read the Guidelines for Remote Supervision (pdf). The supervisory relationship whether in person or remote plays a pivotal role in graduate students’ academic progress and wellbeing. It requires careful attention to power dynamics, boundaries, communication, and best practices to ensure supportive, strengths-based guidance.

Roles and Responsibilities of Supervisory Committee Members

Supervisory committee members are learned scholars chosen for their content and/or methodological expertise. Their role is to support the supervisor's main task to assist the student's growth and development and ultimate successful completion of their graduate thesis, dissertation and/or creative work. Facilitating the graduate student’s intellectual growth and contribution to a field of knowledge, and assisting and supporting the supervisor in providing guidance, consultation, and advice on a student’s research are integral roles for committee members. As part of their appointment to FGS, supervisory committee members are expected to:

• read the thesis in a timely fashion and make a recommendation to the Graduate Program Director regarding the oral defence.
• review a student’s research proposal and recommend its approval to the appropriate Graduate Program Director and the Dean not less than three months prior to the date set for the oral examination;
• review the student’s progress from time to time, normally every six (6) months and never less than once each year. Reports to the Graduate Program Director of unsatisfactory progress may require a student to withdraw from a program of studies or withdraw from the graduate program in which the student is enrolled;
• meet annually with the student, normally in the spring, to evaluate the Report on Progress submitted by the student and submit a completed copy of the Report on Progress to the Graduate Program Director after the meeting; and,
• read the thesis in a timely fashion and make a recommendation to the Graduate Program Director regarding the oral defence.

Roles and Responsibilities of Graduate Programs and GPDs

The role of the Graduate Program Office (GPO) in supporting graduate student supervision is a very important one. The GPO is responsible for setting program expectations, ensuring that graduate students have a clear sense of understanding of how to successfully fulfill their degree requirements in a timely manner, and assist in resolving difficulties. Programs differ greatly across Faculties and disciplines and therefore operate in different ways. The GPO role in supervision may include:

• assisting students in confirming a supervisor;
• reviewing the student’s progress from time to time and reminding students of important deadlines;
• reviewing the student’s progress from time to time and reminding students of important deadlines;
• reviewing and approving supervisory committee composition;
• reviewing, approving and scheduling oral defences;
• assisting and supporting students with personal difficulties impacting their progress
• participating in the resolution of any supervisor-student conflicts.

Ontario Policies, Principles and Guidelines

In 2024, the FGS Faculty Council endorsed the Principles for Graduate Supervision at Ontario Universities. In doing so, FGS and the graduate community recognizes the shared responsibility between the student, supervisor, committee members, programs, GPDs, FGS and the university at large to co-create the circumstances and procedures where graduate student supervision can thrive.

• Read the YorkU Graduate Supervision Guidelines (.pdf). This document describes the responsibilities of supervisors, committee members and students. They are designed to support an environment in which a professional working relationship can flourish.
• Read Principles for Graduate Supervision at Ontario's Universities (.pdf). Endorsed by the Faculty of Graduate Studies, York University and created by the Council of Ontario Universities. This document describes the set of guiding principles for the supervision of students in graduate research-based programs. The document is also available in French (.pdf).
• Read the York U Artificial Intelligence: Considerations for Graduate Research (.pdf). This is a discussion guide for supervisors and students.

Setting Expectations

• View the YorkU Discussion Topics to Inform Productive Supervisory Relationships that aim to provide clarity on supervisory expectations for both graduate students and supervisors.